Physicists have seen a single particle of light and then let it go on its way. The feat was possible thanks to a new technique that, for the first time, detects optical photons without destroying them. The technology could eventually offer perfect detection of photons, providing a boost to quantum communication and even biological imaging.
Riff-in-Thyme said:
Physicists have seen a single particle of light and then let it go on its way. The feat was possible thanks to a new technique that, for the first time, detects optical photons without destroying them. The technology could eventually offer perfect detection of photons, providing a boost to quantum communication and even biological imaging.
They did this every day, without instruments.
harking back to the canon pinon. The fact is remarkable that I haven’t had a comeback on it.
has this done away with ‘can’t measure a particles velocity and position……’ yada..
Riff-in-Thyme said:
has this done away with ‘can’t measure a particles velocity and position……’ yada..
without instrumets, no.
roughbarked said:
Riff-in-Thyme said:
has this done away with ‘can’t measure a particles velocity and position……’ yada..
without instrumets, no.
instruments.
um who makes them?roughbarked said:
roughbarked said:
Riff-in-Thyme said:
has this done away with ‘can’t measure a particles velocity and position……’ yada..
without instrumets, no.
instruments.
um who makes them?
Madam Lash?
Tamb said:
roughbarked said:
roughbarked said:without instrumets, no.
instruments.
um who makes them?Madam Lash?
Mesdames needlepoint and backslash.
Riff-in-Thyme said:
has this done away with ‘can’t measure a particles velocity and position……’ yada..
FWIW, the Heisenberg Uncertainty principle doesn’t stop you from measuring a particle’s position and momentum simultaneously, it merely limits the accuracy with which you can do so.
But this detector is only trying to count photons – it doesn’t try to measure the photon’s position and momentum to high precision, so HUP doesn’t really apply.
PM 2Ring said:
Riff-in-Thyme said:
has this done away with ‘can’t measure a particles velocity and position……’ yada..
No.FWIW, the Heisenberg Uncertainty principle doesn’t stop you from measuring a particle’s position and momentum simultaneously, it merely limits the accuracy with which you can do so.
But this detector is only trying to count photons – it doesn’t try to measure the photon’s position and momentum to high precision, so HUP doesn’t really apply.
sweet. I’m still relatively impressed.
(From the link)
“It’s a very cool experiment,” says Alan Migdall, who leads the quantum optics group at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Gaithersburg, Md. But he warns that identifying photons without destroying them does not mean that the outgoing photon is the same as it was prior to detection. “You’ve pulled some information out of it, so you do wind up affecting it,” he says.
This detector works by getting the photons to interact with an atom in a superposition of states, which puts the photons into a superposition of states. So the photon ensemble is certainly affected. But at least the detected photons aren’t totally absorbed, like they are in a traditional detector.
PM 2Ring said:
(From the link)
“It’s a very cool experiment,” says Alan Migdall, who leads the quantum optics group at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Gaithersburg, Md. But he warns that identifying photons without destroying them does not mean that the outgoing photon is the same as it was prior to detection. “You’ve pulled some information out of it, so you do wind up affecting it,” he says.This detector works by getting the photons to interact with an atom in a superposition of states, which puts the photons into a superposition of states. So the photon ensemble is certainly affected. But at least the detected photons aren’t totally absorbed, like they are in a traditional detector.
Being able to enforce and use superposition in a system seems to have more potential than just measuring photons….